New tracking system eliminates 'ghosts' from Army Soldier, civilian training rosters

By Mike Casey - Combined Arms Center - TrainingJune 23, 2017

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FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. -- Company commanders and first sergeants don't have to cross off separated Soldiers from their training rosters -- a computer program innovation has taken that job off their plates.

In May, the Digital Training Management System (DTMS) completed automating the process to remove the names of Soldiers and Army civilians who separate from their units.

Previously, Army leaders called the DTMS Help Desk to remove these names from unit rosters, but too often the names remained, and thousands of 'ghost' Soldiers and civilians stayed on unit rosters indefinitely. Army commanders asked the Combined Arms Center -- Training (CAC-T) to fix the problem.

"We worked closely with Human Resources Command to develop the right program to update and correct training rosters. Now our work is saving Army leaders a lot of time and effort," said Chris Lessard, an information technology specialist for data management at the Training Management Directorate (TMD). TMD is a CAC-T subordinate organization.

TMD's Chief of Training Management Systems Mike Higginbottom said the new process also fits with a larger Army goal.

"As the Army changes how it objectively assesses unit training proficiency, maintaining accurate training rosters is vitally important," he said. "And training is the cornerstone for the Army's No.1 goal - readiness."

The same team that developed training roster correction is working with Army Human Resources Command on another effort. The team wants to digitally send Soldier weapon qualification results and Army Physical Fitness Tests scores from DTMS to the Electronic Military Personnel Office and the Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army.

"This effort will improve overall data accuracy and significantly reduce the burden of entering the same data in multiple systems at the company and battalion levels," Higginbottom said.

CAC-T fields training systems, delivers leader training and sustains training capabilities to support the Army. Its website is: http://usacac.army.mil/organizations/cact/. Its Facebook page is: http://www.facebook.com/usacactraining and its Twitter handle is: ‏@usacactraining.

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